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THE " GENERAL STRIKE " AS A LABOUR WEAPON.
B Y D. A. CHART, E S Q . [Read February 16th, 1912.]
It may as well be avowed at the outset that this paper is written more for the purpose of eliciting the views of the members of the Statistical Society on a subject of the 'utmost interest and importance, than with any design of
making a serious contribution to the literature of a very difficult and complicated subject. Labour problems are continually coming up for solution m every civilised country, and, on account of their close connection with politics, are usually discussed with all the unnecessary vehemence, the personal animosity, and the wilful or un-conscious misrepresentation, that seem to be inseparable fiom political' controversy. The atmosphere of Parlia-ment or the hustings is not favourable to the adequate consideration or proper decision of problems so intricate and many-sided. It may be well, therefore, that these questions should, before falling into the political mael-strom, receive the philosophic and dispassionate judgment of such a society as this, most of whose members will be given credit for a lack of partisanship and a desire for the welfare, both of the public and the individual.
The special point to which your attention will be directed this evening is the comparatively novel use of the "general" or "sympathetic" strike as a means of compelling a settlement of disputes between employers and employed. The practice appears to have arisen in the Latin countries of Western Europe, notably in France and Italy, and to have gradually spread to these shores. The procedure adopted is familiar to all from recent ex-periences and need not be described in detail. In its essentials it is an effort to enforce a settlement of partial or local industrial disputes by spreading the area of con-tention and involving eventually so many interests that the whole commercial and industrial world is practically brought to a standstill.
T H E UNSKILLED WORKER AND T H E GENERAL STRIKE.
560 The " General Strike " as a Labour Weapon [Part 92,
1912 ] By D. A. Chart, Esq. 561
two will be entrusted with the solution of the difficult problem of setting this class more firmly on its feet and more secure against misfortune The Old Age Pensions and Insurance Acts are one way of dealing with the matter, the " general strike " is another, and, to my mind, a much more dangerous and less effectual way, though, for reasons to be stated, it is undeniably attractive to the workman, as offering him a hope of an immediate amelioration in his condition
POSITION OF THE TRANSPORT TRADES.
Though unskilled or semi-skilled hands are, despite the growth of machinery, still employed in large numbers in the processes of production, it is probably true that they are not so prominent in this branch as they are in that of distribution, particularly in the gigantic and multifarious organisation of transport. The observant men, who come to the front in the councils of labour, have not failed to perceive that modern civilisation depends for its very existence on the free and unhampered working of a vast and complicated transport system. Every city depends for its very existence on the country carts, the trains and steamers, which bring its food and the raw materials for its industries. In the vital matter of food alone it is probable that a week's complete cessation of external sup-plies would produce an absolute famine Thus the unskilled workers held apparently the key of the situation. If they, as a body, withheld their labour from the great transport systems, and could prevent anyone else from taking their place, they could stop the whole machinery of civilisation and produce such a paralysis as would make their employers glad to buy off their opposition on any terms The policy has accordingly been put in force from time to time, both in this country and in Great Britain, but it may be doubted whether it has been par-ticularly successful The carters here were defeated, as also the railwaymen. The railwaymen in England, though they succeeded in obtaining Government interven-tion, can hardly be said to have gained the points at issue. The sailors, however, were victorious, though in their case it must be remembered that a seaman, unlike a carter, docker, or railway porter, is to a great extent a skilled hand, and cannot be replaced at short notice.
562 The u General Strike " as a Labour Weafon. [Part 92,
much harm to those who wield it as to those at whom its blows are aimed. The paralysis oi municipal and national trade has been partially and temporarily achieved, but the strikers have rarely been \1ctor1ous, have certainly never been able to dictate their terms. In the first place the strike has never been " general" in the true sense of the word. Some systems managed to keep the whole of their men at work, and others, though there were numerous defections among their staff, still kept together a nucleus of non-strikers. There are almost always local and personal causes at work sufficient to produce this re-sult. For instance, old servants of the railway companies do not wish to jeopardize their pensions, and married men hesitate to expose their families to privation. Thus the system of transportation, though crippled, WJLS still able to perform its functions, even in an uncertain and irregular manner.
Furthermore, unless the unattain able "ideal of a com-plete, universal, and simultaneous cessation of labour can be realised, it will always be possible for the threatened organisations to adopt alternative methods of working, just as a river, when its usual course is damned up, will eventually make another channel for itself. Thus, if the railway between Cork and Dublin is impeded, the traffic may come round by sea, or again it may come by land through the medium of a motor service. In fact a motor passenger service to Cork was established for a time during the late railway strike.
Again, it must be remembered that the suffering which a stoppage of the transport system must produce would inevitably fall immediately and with double effect on the stukmg workers themselves. If a man is hard pressed to live and support a wife and family on 20s. a week with the transport system working freely and with commodi-ties at normal prices, how can he do so on 10s a week strike pay, with the transport system in confusion and commodities at famine prices? Even the continuance of the strike pay, meagre as it is, is dubious, for most of the unions which adopt the " general strike " as part of their policy are financially weak, and could not continue to pay the large body of men whose absence from work would be required to make a general strike effective. An industrial war of this character, unlike the obstinate and long-continued strike of the skilled workers, is usually of brief duration.
A T T E N D A N T DISTURBANCE AND INCON-VENIENCE.
By D. A. Chart, Esq. 563
labour being so abundant throughout the United Kingdom, the employers naturally resorted to importa-tion to fill the places of their own men who had " gone out." Naturally, too, these men were regarded by the strikers as traitors to their own class, and their coming fiequently led to scenes of the wildest disorder. Another and a less excusable feature of these " general strikes has been the planned and deliberate damage of the em-ployer's property, the sabotage, of which so much has been heard in connection with the French railway strike.
The civil authority is called in to protect threatened property, but finds itself confronted with a very difficult, almost insuperable, task. From the very nature of their functions, the great agencies of transport and distribution must possess a great amount of valuable property scat-tered here and there over a wide area. They are not like the typical unit of production, the factory, which is definitely localised and can be guarded by a single small stationary force Take, for instance, the Great Southern and Western Railway mam line alone, with its 180 miles of costly steel rails, its thirty or forty stations, its two or three hundred bridges and viaducts, its innumerable points and signal boxes How is such a vast mass to be protected at every vulnerable point, and how are its con-veyances to be guarded while in motion ? I believe com-petent military opinion holds that, to secure a railway from hostile attack, 100 soldiers are required for every mile of rails. On that basis the garrison of Ireland would not be nearly sufficient to protect even the four main lines Oi again, m the case of a strike of carters, it will require an enormous force of police to provide adequate escort for each item of the traffic of a great mercantile city It h not unfair to say that violence, or, at all events, threats of violence and damage to property have been the almost invariable concomitants of the "general strike" wherever it has occurred, and it is sometimes thought that this policy is designed by its authors, not so much to compel the employers to an agreement, as to create, by starvation of the markets and tumult in the streets, such alarm in the minds of national and municipal governments as will force them to intervene and impose a peace which, in these days of democratic rule, is pretty sure to contain seme concession to the labour side of the dispute. Rarely, if ever, has a general strike resulted in the admission of defeat by the employers; but it has often ended in conferences called by the State or some other third party.
S T A T E OF PUBLIC FEELING.
564 The " General Strike " as a Labour Weapon. [Part 92,
of the public with those who, to gam their own ends, put the whole community to loss, inconvenience and, in many , cases, positive suffering. Since the principle of the " sympathetic strike," which is practically a device for turning any small local dispute in any trade into a uni-versal strike of all trades, has been carried into action, no citizen can tell from day to day at what hour or moment his city may not be in a state of siege. He may be per-sonally a non-combatant and a neutral, yet he has to suffer as much as, if not more than, the protagonists them-selves. He would not be human if he did not resent such tieatment, and such incidents as the formation of volunteer police show that his indignation is taking tangible form. It is likely, too, that on subsequent occasions of a general strike volunteers will be found to come forward to guard and carry on the public utilities. I believe there was an instance of this at Liverpool, where even such an un-pleasant, if necessary, task as street scavenging was per-formed by voluntary helpers
,What then are the facts of the position as outlined hitherto? A numerous, unskilled, poorly-paid and
hard-living class dissatisfied with its condition and striving to improve its state by means of methods uncertain of suc-cess, extremely damaging to the community generally and tinged throughout with violence of speech and action. It is a dangerous situation, resembling in some important particulars France before the Revolution and Ireland be-fore the Land War. What is the solution ? The problem,
as our President said in his opening address, is one calling for the best statesmanship, the widest knowledge and the keenest foresight in the nation. It will appear pre-sumptuous for me to put forward opinions on such a difficult subject. Still everyone in such a society as this is entitled to his say, and some of our members, from their experience and position, may be considered as authorities on the subject. As a basis for discussion I would make the following remarks.
] By D. A. Chart, Esq. 565
Green, they would be arrested, punished, probably with some severity, and told that 111 future they must bring their differences to be settled before a court of law. Yet the policy of the " general strike," and equally, of course, the " lock out/' make the trade pf a whole city a scene of contention for weeks and weeks, whereas the duellists would only have stopped a single thoroughfare for ten minutes. I do not wish to apportion blame to either side in these industrial disputes. The workman may legiti-mately consider that he has a grievance, when he finds that modern industrial organisation, despite its many splendid achievements, stints some of its workers even of a bare subsistence. Again it may be assumed that the employer is seldom the avaricious tyrant he appears to the labour imagination, nor is the labour leader the reckless incendiary he is often represented to be They are all in a tangle of circumstance, which must some of these days be unravelled. Yet, for the sake of the public welfare, the general strike must, like the explosive bullet and other ingenious but reprehensible engines of war, be banished from civilised existence How is it to be driven out ? By the same method that private war was prevented, by com-pulsory arbitration, by the enforcement of law as a sub-stitute for the rude sanction of the. stronger arm. War in every form is a relic of barbarism; private war is un-known _m properly governed countries; another century may see the last of international war, though pride, courage, and patriotism combine to keep it alive. Should not industrial war vanish with this generation ? I think it should and must
566 The " General Strike " as a Labour Weapon. [Part 92,
the state of each trade, its prosperity or otherwise, the pressure of external competition, the cost of living, price of necessaries, local circumstances, etc Provision could be made for a periodical review of their decisions in view of altered circumstances, which might arise from time to time. The majority of employers would, I think, find that the^ establishment of industrial security by such courts would be a benefit outweighing in the end their losses from any increase of wages the courts might order. The workmen, too, though they would m all probability be recalcitrant for a time and might be disappointed with the first awards, would eventually, if the courts showed the equity, ability, and impartiality, which would be desirable, lay aside their suspicion and hostility, and gradually form a habit of appealing to a judicial tribunal instead of to the rude and uncertain arbitrament of the strike.
Let nobody say that the relation of employe/s and employed is an economic problem to be settled by the working of economic laws without the intervention of a third party. Political economy is not an exact science. That variable and provoking element called human nature cuts athwart all its rules, and frequently hinders, some-times altogether prevents their proper working. The poor man, because he is poor and cannot hold out for a price, is a bad bargainer and often fails to obtain an adequate reward for his labour. Otherwise how can the existence of sweating be explained? On the other hand, the rich man, if he chooses (though it must be admitted that many do not choose) can, by reason of his strong financial posi-tion, drive the hardest of hard bargains. Again, com-petition presses hard on many employers and forces them to cut down wages to the minimum.
ANALOGY OF LAND COMMISSION.
1912.] By D. A. Chart, Esq. 567
pursuing. The methods of attack and defence are much the same, and the solution may come along similar lines. In the case of land, the trend has been first to State arbi-tration, then to a wide scheme of purchase under State auspices. If labour questions are to pass through the same phases, we should see first the establishment of con-ciliation courts, then the acquisition by the worker of the means of production. Of course, the complete personal individual possession natural to small agricultural owner-ship will not be possible in the case of factories, in which perhaps hundreds of men are engaged, but some form of co-operative production, most likely in the shape of State or municipal industries, may be adopted eventually. It is an interesting, if somewhat disturbing, prospect.
NEED FOR INQUIRY.
568 The " General Strike " as a Labour Weapon. [Part 92,
poverty, the unskilled labour, the industrial unrest of a city like Dublin presents, and until we do, we are working in the dark and ineffectively.
